Rey's Fandom Corner: Gaming, Writing, and More!

January 28, 2026

Weird Official Wii Games

Everyone loves to talk about the shitty shovelware games on the Wii, but no one seems to want to talk about the strange official games of the generation.

The internet loves to shit on the Wii generation for a variety of reasons. Be it the shitty, non-functioning shovelware games from the generation, or the god awful motion controls impressed upon you in every game imaginable, a lot of people’s complaints of the Wii are quite justifiable. But, the Wii’s generation was weird outside of those games, and it’s essentially all because of it’s marketing.

The Wii was marketed as a console for everyone. And when Nintendo says everyone, they literally meant everyone. Introduced with a controller that looked more like a TV remote than any controller I’ve ever seen, it was bound to create a hell of a lot of strange games for the generation.

Being a high selling console, the Wii outlived many other consoles of it’s generation. Though, the Wii U helped extend it’s lifespan, it was moreso out of confusion of the Wii U’s existence rather than being a proper successor. Thus, with like at least a decade of gaming under it’s belt, the Wii is one of the strangest moment in history with some of the weirdest games, yet one that is still beloved to this day. At the very least, that’s more than what the Wii U can say.

Disclaimer: A “weird” game isn’t necessarily a “bad” game for the Wii; a lot of what I’m choosing here are strange off-shoot games from previously established series with motion controls that don’t make sense.

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Alright, let’s get back into it.

Castlevania Judgement (2008)

First up on the docket, and the main reason why I wanted to make this post, we have Castlevania Judgement, a fighting game with the Castlevania characters.
Which, y’know, Castlevania’s known for action adventure games where you explore a gothic manor, oftentimes in relation to Dracula in some capacity.
Yeah, what if that but fighting game.
But, also put it on the Wii where there’s barely enough controls for a fighting game, this will go over well, trust.
I was gonna say “what if they made a Metroid fighting game, it’d be just as weird” but I forgot about Smash.

Call of Duty 3 (2006)

I mean, listen, at least they tried, man.
First-person shooter on the Wii sounds like it should work, like you can use the Wii-Mote as a pointer like with mouse-functionality!
But it absolutely just doesn’t work that way, especially with older Wii-Motes without Motion Plus, that shit was jittery and unsure of itself 90% of the time.
Like I know that the Wii was meant for everybody from 1-99 or whatever, but like please tell me who was itching to play Call of Duty on the Wii.

Animal Crossing: City Folk (2008)

I feel like a lifesim on Wii just doesn’t make sense, and it’s truly all about pointing a Wii-Mote at a TV.
Trying to manage an entire city, but you’re confined to your couch and you have to miserably point the Wii-Mote at the TV to control the characters seems awful.
Like yeah, the Wii was the next console for Animal Crossing after GameCube (at least in the US), so obviously there has to be a Wii Animal Crossing, but I don’t know, I’ve never understood why you would want to play Animal Crossing with motion controls.
At this point, you’d think Nintendo—or developers for the Wii in general—would understand that motion controls do not equate to sitting at a computer and maneuvering around with a mouse, but alas…

Another Code:R - A Journey into Lost Memories (2009)

Structurally, I can see why the Wii would be a good console for point and click adventures, but like logically, I wouldn’t want to play a point and click adventure on a TV.
This goes for all point-and-click adventures, including the Ace Attorney games when they ported them to the Wii Shop Channel.
But like, controlling a character around a map for some portions, and having them stand stagnant while you look around for other portions just seems egregious.
We’ll get to Metroid: Other M.

Cooking Mama: Cook Off (2007)

A situation where they happened to have a semi-popular series on DS and figured it wouldn’t hurt to put it on Wii as well. But like, why?
I have Cooking Mama 1-5, but I never had the privilege to have Cooking Mama on the Wii, and something about it just seems nefarious.
I cannot envision waggling the Wii-mote to be nearly as intuitive as stylus controls on DS.

Dead Space: Extraction (2009)

…Is this even a game people remember?
Yet again, a situation where I need to know who this is for; like yes Dead Space was a game that existed around this time, but the fact that they had to make it an on-rails shooter for it to work on Wii says enough.
Like a survival horror as an on-rails shooter is hilarious to me, yeah you could jump-scare someone in an on-rails shooter, but like where else do you want me to go?? I literally can’t move.

Any Toys to Life Game

I think it’s so funny to put a toys to life game on Wii, like the Wii just doesn’t have the ideal controls to function well with a toys to life game, not to mention there really isn’t a lot of USB ports on the thing to make portals work.
Like yes, structurally you can make a platformer/sandbox game on Wii, but like there were better platforms for this at the time that had actual proper ports and controls for the game to work well.
Though, then again, I don’t think it’s as egregious as putting it on the 3DS (looking at YOU Skylanders, what the fuck??)

Dragon Quest Swords (2007)

I feel like any RPG on Wii is funny as hell, and this does include the Zelda games on Wii, but Dragon Quest in particular is really good.
Like, Dragon Quest is such a fundamental RPG that shaped how RPGs function, and you mean to tell me they made an on-rails shooter but you use a sword (where have I heard this before…)
Granted, I haven’t ever played a Dragon Quest game, so I don’t know if it fits the series’ tone and overall presentation very well, but as an outsider looking in, it’s funny as hell.

Sonic and the Black Knight (2009)

Oh right.
I feel like Sonic has spent a lot of it’s history trying to figure out what it’s identity is, so this isn’t too egregious to me, but it’s also really funny how they had to completely reshape what Sonic is on a fundamental level to make this game.
This was also the first Sonic game I played, so I can’t complain too much.
I love how they had the Storybook series already with Secret Rings, but on the US box art, it doesn’t mention that it’s a Storybook game. So they went all in with Sonic and the Black Knight and made it very obviously a new series in the franchise.
It also feels like they wanted to make an on-rails shooter for Sonic for the Wii, but didn’t know how that would work in the Sonic universe, so they took the Storybook series identity and essentially went “fuck it.”
Sonic with a sword is hilarious though, I’ll give them that; right up there with Shadow with a gun.

Far Cry Vengeance (2006)

I love how you can tell a game is gonna have fucked up controls simply by the year of release. Like 2006 was the release year for the Wii, they still had hope that motion controls would take off and be popular, unaware that it’s only really popular in Wii Sports.
Looking at the controls of this and like now I’m of the belief that Call of Duty on Wii isn’t nearly as egregious as this.
“The player can make the character jump by lifting the Nunchuk,” Oh, we were just doing whatever the fuck we wanted with the Wii and it’s controls, huh.
“Zoom on sniper rifles are controlled by moving the Wii-mote toward the TV,” what the fuck.
The true spirit of this Substack post, good lord, why would they make this and think it was A) a good idea and B) will last past the Wii generation.
Me and the homies getting together to play Far Cry Vengeance in the year of our lord 2026, our favorite Far Cry game, LIKE???

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (2007)

I’m not super upset by a Fire Emblem game being on Wii, like it at least has Wii Pro Controller support so it doesn’t have egregious motion controls and isn’t too strange gameplay-wise.
Like again, the happenstance of a GameCube game being followed up on the Wii because the Wii was the next console.
I just think its really funny that we got a Fire Emblem game on Wii but not on N64. Very Metroid of them.
This would also lead to the next games being exclusively on handheld consoles until Switch, which says a lot, like Intelligent Systems really did not want to put their dying series on a dying console, but did put it on GameCube and Wii, fascinating.

GoldenEye 007 (2010)

What.
They remade the N64 007 game that everyone and their mothers played, a couch co-op multiplayer game, and released it exclusively on the Wii and DS.
Sure it was eventually ported to Xbox 360 and PS3, but what the fuck were they thinking???
Thankfully its not dependent on the Wii-Mote—yet another case of the game being a later release on Wii and understanding that you can’t depend on motion controls on Wii without people rioting—but holy shit, why would they do that?
I continue to think its funny as hell that they released online multiplayer games during the Wii generation at all.

Just Dance 2020 (2019)

Not exactly the same level of “what the fuck” weird, but weird in it’s own right.
Like yes, I always found it strange that they continued the Just Dance series past the Wii/Wii U generation, like motion controls just aren’t as exciting nowadays.
But the fact that they released Just Dance 2020 on Wii, three years after the Switch released and on a dead console no less, and didn’t put it on the Wii U is funny as hell.
Also holy shit it released on the Google Stadia. Goddamn, if that isn’t an indicator of the Wii U’s reputation, then I don’t know what is.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn (2010)

I feel like any game that tried to use the Wii mote as a stylus is personally out to get me in particular. Like, why was Nintendo so insistent that the Wii-Mote could be used like a mouse cursor, it truly just doesn’t function like that.
And they didn’t put this on DS? Wild.
To be fair, the DS did have Canvas Curse which used stylus controls much more, so it’s not too strange, but also just makes me more confused why they put this specifically on Wii.
Also, I’m docking a point for this starting the weird craft-like Nintendo games era that progressed onto the Wii U and 3DS. Put this side-by-side with Yoshi’s Wooly World and I’ll have a lot of questions.

Any of the Madden Games

I don’t know, man, I don’t think people that play Madden games bought a Wii, I’ll be so for real with you.
The fact that they have Madden 07 through 13 on here is wild as hell, PLEASE tell me who bought these games…

Metroid Other M (2010)

I will have a full post on this sometime in the near future, but like the controls on this guy is so funny, like it wants to be Prime so bad.
You have the sideways controls where you play like a regular 2D Metroid game, except it’s more like 2.5D (vaguely), but then you also have to hold the Wii-Mote vertically to scan certain things and look around, and that’s funny as hell.
You never know which way you should be holding the Wii-Mote at any given time, thank you Other M.

MySims (2007)

Again, like with Animal Crossing and any lifesim game on Wii, why is this here?
Like I need to know why they made an entirely new lifesim series specifically for the Wii.
I watched my brother play this and Kingdom growing up, and like you have to move around the map and help people build houses and decorate them, which means a lot of cursor controls on Wii.
And I always thought that it would be better on the DS because again, stylus controls are always better than motion controls.
But, funnily enough, the DS is a completely different game, more on the Animal Crossing management side of things without really any building involved, and it pissed me off.

Nights: Journey of Dreams (2007)

I think it’s funny as hell that they continued the Nights series, a game on the Sega Saturn, on the Nintendo Wii, a full decade later and an entirely different game industry/audience.
I think it’s really cool that they made this, and thankfully had multiple control options, but man, why did the development just happen to line up with the Wii? Why did they wait until 2005 to start working on it? Wouldn’t it have been a better GameCube game?
Also if you use the Wii-Mote vertically, you have to point it at the screen and control Nights’ flight with motion controls. Wouldn’t be on this list if it didn’t have weird as hell controls options.

Resident Evil 4 - Wii Edition (2007)

I’m sorry man, but RE4 on Wii doesn’t make sense.
Like thankfully, again, other controls are used outside of just motion controls, but they still implemented it, so I’m still gonna make fun of it.
Third party developers really tried to make the Wii work, but kept bringing the strangest games that require controller support to the Wii, and since they were already there, they figured they might as well try to include motion controls.
But something about a survival horror game, wandering around without being able to look being you reliably with your Wii-Mote pointed at the screen is so funny to me.
Can’t be scared when I’m controlling Leon Kennedy with a fucking Wii-Mote in my hand.

Xenoblade Chronicles (2010)

Again, a situation where they start an entire series on the Wii, but it doesn’t make sense why they would do that.
Especially considering the image of the Monado sword on the front cover, you would think Xenoblade Chronicles would be another hack and slash game with sword controls, in the vein of Sonic and the Black Knight or Dragon Quest Swords.
But its not; it’s a turn-based real-time RPG. Finding this out was earth-shattering to me.

Wii Chess (2008)

I mean…come on…don’t you wanna play chess on the Wii……
It only released in Europe, bro what are they feeding the Europeans?
It’s just chess but with motion controls, like come on.

And, that’s about it! I saw a lot of games on this list that also released on DS, so lemme know if you wanna see a “Weird Non-Shovelware DS Games” post from me sometime! Also, lemme know if I missed anything that should’ve been on the list, maybe I’ll add an addendum later on.

Did you play any of these games? Which were your favorites? Which control methods still send shivers down your spine when you think of them? Lemme know in the comments below!

Next week, I’m finally posting my first book review of this blog on the Poppy War Trilogy! This was supposed to go up today, but I psyched myself out of posting it for the hopes of perfecting it. I created this blog in hopes to combine my two interests of video games and books, and 20 video game posts later, I finally have a book to review. Christ.

And as always, see you next week!

January 25, 2026

SMS: Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance

Why I love this silly little game, and why you should give it more of a chance!

Recently, I finished playing Harmony of Dissonance, a Gameboy Advance Castlevania game released in 2002. Now, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in the Castlevania series; the only other game I played before this was Castlevania for the NES and I did not get it. But, I have played a hell of a lot of Metroid, a series I also didn’t expect to like and became obsessed with, so I kinda get what makes a good Metroidvania game. And Harmony of Dissonance (HoD) may just be one of the best Metroidvania’s I’ve ever played.

People like to claim that HoD isn’t actually a Metroidvania because your weapon doesn’t evolve and you don’t really get upgrades to your suit, like in Metroid. But, to me, as long as movement options are locked, and you have to backtrack in order to unlock the movement option, it’s enough of a Metroidvania to me. But, like Metroid Zero Mission, I was kinda hesitant to get into HoD proper because I didn’t know if I’d like it. And Castlevania games have a much different vibe from Metroid games, especially with the genre being fantasy/magical realism versus sci-fi. But, man…man…the most important of a game for me is the first few minutes, and HoD sold me on those first few minutes perfectly.

And most of that is because of the movement options in HoD. Holy shit, the movement!! I wish Metroid had the movement options that HoD does! You got dashes, which are immediately incredibly convenient, but also slides, and double jumps, and the diagonal dashes?? Insane, truly. At some point, you really can just schmove through the corridors at alarming rates, slamming through levels like they’re nothing, I gotta watch a speedrun of this game. Like, look at this shit! (excuse my poor gaming)

The key thing here is that you unlock these movement options real early, if not coded directly into the game from the get-go like with dashes, and that helps immensely with not only the first impressions of the game, but also keeping excitement for the game high throughout the play-through. Which, is especially important when you learn midway through the game that there are two castles, and things start to slow down immeasurably.

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance Map by VGCartography on DeviantArt

The two castle thing is one of the biggest complaints of HoD, and I can’t defend HoD for it. It is genuinely egregious what they do here. Interesting mechanic, sure, but there are area unlocks here where you have to go between Castle A and B to find the right key, or unscrew the floor, or hit the guardian with the hammer at the right time, and like, I don’t think it’s very intuitive or obvious what you have to do at a given point. There are threads of people complaining on GameFAQs and Reddit about certain actions and where the hell you have to go next, especially for late game stuff, and it’s fully justified.

But, honestly? If you get the cross spell and the wind tomb, you can have a circle of crosses protect you, making it easy to fly through annoying enemies and explore the majority of the maps with ease, especially in late game when you have the highest armor upgrades. Also, with enough warp rooms, that also makes the backtracking much better to experience.

People also love to complain about the boss fights being “too easy” and, like, again, that’s subjective. This is Path of Radiance all over again; just because you find it easy doesn’t mean the majority of the public is going to find it easy.

Some boss fights are genuinely stupid easy, though. Like, Peeping Big and Max Slimer are incredibly simple fights because you can just sit and attack in one spot, and you likely won’t get hit by anything at all.

Some other fights like Minotaur and Giant Merman have you doing a bit more, and can be much more intensive fights, especially for the early game fights, but I don’t think these are specifically here to be incredibly challenging fights. In between your Talos’ and Golems, you also have fights like Shadow, and Devil, and Cyclops, and Pazuzu, where their movements are annoying and it’s frustratingly hard to understand their patterns. I think the balance between annoying and hard fights with easy and simple fights is perfect, and makes HoD an easy game to recommend for beginners of the series (like myself).

All of this escalates to the second to last boss fight (at least, for the True Ending), which is by far the hardest boss fight in the game, bar none, and the fact you have to fight him three times if you want to achieve all three endings in the game makes up for all of the easier fights in the mid- to late-game.

All in all, I love Harmony of Dissonance, regardless of how much it’s hated in the community. It’s genuinely a great game to get into the series with, but something that I definitely have to play more Metroidvania Castlevania’s to understand why it’s so universally disliked.

And that’s about it! I’m super curious about what y’all think of Harmony of Dissonance, because while it can be flawed, it was still quite a fun experience all in all for me. It’s also a really fun game to run in an Archipelago because of how chaotic and ultimately short it is. Lemme know your thoughts in the comments below!

Next SMS post will go live 2/8, where I finally get to ramble about how much I love Ghost Trick, thank god!! I promise I won’t spoil anything in it, so stay tuned for that!

And as always, see you next week!

January 21, 2026

How Emulation Changed My Life

As a game collector, emulation completely changed my perspective of game collecting and backlog culture.

Game collecting is a hobby I’ve taken up over the last five years or so, and over that time, I’ve come to familiarize myself with common talking points within the game collecting community. People like to say that if you don’t play the games on their official hardware, with official controllers, then you didn’t really play it. For a while, I held this belief as well. I wanted to have official games with the official hardware, I bought every game console I could so that I could play (almost) every generation of gaming, I amassed a collection of games that I was really, truly proud of, something that I could go back and look at to get inspiration for my next play.

But then came the backlog. You see, when you collect a bunch of games from every feasible generation of gaming, you end up with a stacked as hell backlog, one that seems daunting to tackle.

Of course, the backlog would be that long regardless of owning the games or not, but there’s a sense of urgency when it comes to games you own. I mean, you spent money on it, sometimes a lot of money, and if you aren’t playing it then it’s just sitting on your shelf collecting dust. It starts to feel like a waste.

I wanted to find a means to get through my backlog without dreading it. A simpler means, one that didn’t make me feel so regretful over. Thus, enters emulation.

Disclaimer: I’m not recommending anyone emulate (*wink*) nor am I suggesting it to be ethically sound (*wink*); I’m suggesting how emulation might affect my life if I were to do it (*wink*), which I do not (*wink*)

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Alright, let’s get back into it!

Emulation on iOS

In January 2024, Apple finally opened the doors for emulators to be functional on their phones without having to hack their devices. I had spent some time previously trying to figure out how emulation works, but a lot of my hasty research ended up proving to be a fruitless endeavor. But when Afterplay—an emulator website—came into the picture, I finally gave in to the temptations and found a (legally acquired) ROM of Metroid Zero Mission. And, man, I was hooked.

Sure, I had to use touch-controls because I didn’t have controller meant for my phone (which made shinesparking an absolute bitch), and sure, I had the free version which limited how many save states I could use, but I finally understood the hype of emulation.

I mean, all of these games that have previously been locked out of me from purchasing due to egregious pricing were suddenly available, and games that I had already purchased didn’t require the hassle of plugging in a new console, searching for an open space to set the console, configuring the wires, and finding the right controllers, all for one game that’s approximately 20 hours to complete. It’s just a simple matter of turning on my phone, clicking the right game, and playing.

Delta Emulator soon came into the picture with DS support, and I picked up a Backbone One for a simple controller set-up, and suddenly, I was truly living my gamer dreams.

But, with just a simple taste of emulation, I couldn’t be stopped. I needed to see this picture to the end. I wanted to experience more emulation, more convenient means of gaming, and soon, jumping headfirst into the modding community.

There was still a part of me that didn’t like emulation, that still struggled with my backlog. I had a lot more games easily accessible, but all it really did was add more games to my backlog. I still wasn’t picking up games on my shelf, and now, I was more inclined to emulate because it was easier.

GB Operator and Transferring Save States

I picked up an Epilogue GB Operator around Christmas in 2024, enthralled by the idea of downloading save states on my laptop. Not only did it allow me to play official cartridges on my laptop, but I could also save my save files for finicky cartridges with dying batteries, allowing me to replace my own batteries without risking loss of data.

This seemed like the rational progression from being a game collector. If you’re gonna take the effort to collect a bunch of retro game consoles and cartridges especially, you should be ready to troubleshoot any issues you may have, learn how to clean them, and familiarize yourself with the internals. While I did use the GB Operator to save my save files to my computer, what I ended up learning is that the GB Operator is a great way to transfer save states between devices.

Now, not only could a play my cartridges on my laptop, but I could take a save file from a ROM on my phone and download it back onto the cartridge itself, and vice versa. Gone are the days of playing a game exclusively through a ROM or exclusively on cartridge, I could play one and send it to the other in a matter of seconds. Of course, this was limited to the Gameboy family of games, but imagine what this could do for all cartridge based games and the future of emulation as we know it.

This, in tandem with having Gameboy Player and Delta Emulator, I could buy the official cart for a game and play it virtually anywhere, depending on how I felt. If I wanted to play it on a TV, or my laptop, or my phone, I could transfer the saves between devices and play however I wanted.

PSP Modding and PS1 Emulation

In May 2025, I bit the bullet and finally purchased a PSP. This was incredibly exciting for me, despite watching the PS Vita I got the year prior collect dust, because I watched my dad and brother play their PSPs growing up, and always thought it was fascinating. I picked up a Japanese PSP since it was a bit cheaper, and happily went on my way playing the PSP games in my dad and brother’s collection.

Well, I say this, but the first thing I did with my PSP was hack it. Which, I don’t know if anyone has ever said this before, but a PSP is very easy to hack. Sometimes, I genuinely forget that I hacked it to begin with.

Now, the main reason I did this was to region-unlock the UMD movies. I think it’s incredibly funny that the PSP is region-locked, but only for the movies not the games despite both being disc-based. Though, of course, I also dabbled in downloading (legally acquired) ROMs for it. The PSP can really only handle PSP games, though people have figured out how to get other ROMs to work on it, I had Delta Emulator for the ROMs outside of the PSP realm. Plus, I really just wanted to download games I wanted to demo to see if it was worth purchasing later on down the road.

Then, I learned about PS1 ROMs working on PSP. I had to genuinely limit myself on what I downloaded in this regard, mostly because a lot of PS1 games have multiple discs, and finagling the ROMs for each individual disc was nightmarish, to say the least. So, instead, I only chose games I legally own copies of, such as Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross, giving myself yet another convenient way to play PS1 games without having to get out a PS1/PS2, plugging it in, configuring space, the whole shebang. For JRPGs like that, that’s an incredible discovery.

But, despite this, I still felt like something was off. My backlog was only growing, now exponentially because the means of getting ROMs was far too easy. I kept feeling pressured by my list, created by my own hands, and the convenience of it all felt more like a burden than anything else. For months, time slipped through my fingers and I couldn’t bring myself to play anything.

Returning to Form

After taking around seven months off of gaming, on mostly a whim, I picked up Metroid Prime 2: Echoes again. I had bought the Prime Trilogy about a year and a half before then, and it was one of my biggest regrets because it wasn’t a cheap game to sit and collect dust for so long. And with Prime 4 on the horizon, I had a time limit to catch up.

Metroid Prime 2 is by no means a perfect game, but it was the right one to get me back into gaming. I mean, Metroid started my fascination with emulation, so it’s only natural that Metroid is what gets me back into physical gaming. And it’s safe to say I was enthralled once more.

Of course, I wasn’t gaming alone this time. I garnered new friendships where I could excitedly shout to them about how annoying the boss fights of Prime 2 can be, while also discussing the lore of the game in full and theorizing what could happen next. I wanted to play more games just to tell them about the silly happenings of the game, and to stream it to them via Discord so they can laugh about how stupid the game design can be. Hell, I bought a capture card for this sole purpose.

And perhaps it’s a little cliché, but having friends to talk to about my silly interests and my silly games, something I never had growing up, completely reshaped my relationship with gaming. Sure, I’ve always had family to talk to about it with, but they never were interested in the games I liked, and conversations were short and rare. Having friends who were interested in what I was interested in, and were excited to talk about it with me, is something that teenage me would never believe about her future.

I wouldn’t catch up on the Prime Trilogy in time for Prime 4’s release. Prime 3’s a hell of a game to get through, and I’ve been quite busy lately with this blog. But, that doesn’t mean my new relationship with gaming had to end. No, in fact, it only kept evolving from that point on.

My Evolved Relationship With Emulating and Game Collecting

Finally, I figured a way to tackle my game collection in a way that didn’t cause immense dread. Finally, I remembered why I liked video games to begin with, revitalized with the excitement of spending time with my friends. But, I still had to figure a means to advance my fascination with emulation in a meaningful way, one that didn’t just toss new logs to my backlog meaninglessly.

Is emulation incredibly convenient? Yes. Is it incredibly helpful for people who can’t afford games? Yes, especially in this economy. But, for my purposes, I think emulation may just continue to be a tool to demo games to see if I want to buy it in full, rather than it be the only means of completing games on my backlog.

I’ll forever continue to collect games, regardless of how stressful my backlog makes me feel. But, knowing that there’s a means to tackle it from a different angle than the one I’ve familiarized myself with is astronomically helpful.

And now, I have the tools to be able to evolve my relationship with gaming as a whole. Games I’ve come to cherish through emulation like Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Metroid Fusion can be played on a wider scale with friends in an Archipelago server, where all of the items are randomized within my game and my friends’ games. Through Archipelago, I’ve finally found the means to create a community in gaming, something that’s been lost on me for most of my life. Gaming doesn’t have to be solo activity that stresses me out to think about, it can be fun!

Ultimately, that’s what emulation brought into my life: Games are fun again! It’s no longer a box to check off, because now, I’m running Archipelago servers, spending evenings playing Ace Attorney with my friends in call, and checking out games that might be fun to run in a randomizer, all in between backlog gaming.

I don’t know what the future of gaming will have in store for me. I don’t know what the future of my backlog will look like. But, it’s safe to say, I won’t have the backlog rule my life from now on. I’ll play the games I want to play in the order in which I want to play them. However long it takes is how long it takes. You can’t fail a backlog, but you can fail at spending time with the people you cherish, and ultimately, that’s the spirit I want to bring into the future.

And that’s about it! A bit more of a personal essay, I suppose, but a muscle I gotta flex every once in a while, especially as it’s not a genre I write in often. Of course, like most posts when it comes to gaming in general, it always comes back to the backlog and my estranged relationship with it as a perfectionist.

Lemme know your thoughts about your backlog! How do you tackle your backlog? Do you let it be or have you found the perfect way to balance it? Leave a comment below!

Apparently, 2026 is the year of the backlog. If you haven’t checked it out yet, consider giving my previous post “How to Not Get Burnt Out of Your Backlog” post a read! There’s more detail in that post on how to craft a backlog and/or fix a previously made backlog so you don’t stress out over it.

Next week, I’m gonna be delving into a bit of a newer territory for this blog with a new writing format. It’s a list of Wii games that I found that are fascinatingly official, and I share a couple of thoughts on each one, so a much lighter read than the last few essays I’ve been posting. Stay tuned for that!

And as always, see you next week!

January 14, 2026

How to Not Get Burnt Out of Your Backlog

The perfectionist's guide to having fun consuming a list of media and not freaking out about failure.

With the new year just behind us, I know plenty of people are starting up their New Year Resolutions, and possibly have already failed them (you know who you are). And with resolutions for the year quite possibly comes looking at your backlog and thinking…man, I sure do got my work cut out for me this year.

I’m here to tell you that your backlog does not have to cause you torment. No longer will looking at your backlog cause you incredible distress; instead, it will inspire.

I hope. Let’s get into it!

But first, I do need to shill my service to y’all here, which I do for free and is free for y’all to subscribe to. If you like what you’re reading so far, and want my newest posts sent directly to your inbox, go ahead and subscribe!

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Alright, let’s get back to it!

Assessing Your Current Backlog

Let’s start with the basics. I’m assuming you already have a backlog, but if you don’t, it could be a good exercise to write down everything you want to play/read/watch in a dedicated spreadsheet. You can have separate spreadsheets per interest, or put them all in one spreadsheet for easy viewing. I, myself, have three spreadsheets: one for general media consumption in the year, one dedicated to video games, and one dedicated to books.

Take a look at your spreadsheet. How are you organizing it? How many tabs do you use? Do you have a tab for your up-next media? Let’s start there.

Nine times out of ten, your TBR or your up-next games or whatever it is called is probably causing you the most stress. Giving yourself a dedicated list of what you want to consume next is nice to keep in mind, but ultimately could be giving yourself a timeline for what you should be consuming next. You’ll look at the list while consuming a different piece of media and think “man, I can’t wait to watch/read/play this” or “I need to get through this media so I can get to this.” It’s always going to be about the future, and never the present.

And that’s the thing, right? Focusing on the future is never going to give you enough time with your current piece of media. I’m not saying get rid of your up-next list, because sometimes, it’s important to keep track of what you have and what you want to consume next (especially if you’re working around library loans). I’m saying that if it is the cause of stress, maybe shift the lens of focus there.

Are you giving yourself due dates? Telling yourself that you have to read two books a week or three games a month? Are you dictating how long each media is, and choosing what to consume next based on how short something is, avoiding anything that’s more than 500 pages, more than 30 hours to complete?

Giving yourself set rules or guidelines to follow in the backlog is nice, but ultimately, the backlog is not something completeable on a timeline. You won’t finish your backlog in a year, or two, or five. It’s not possible, and expecting as such is just going to set you up for failure. If you have a backlog, that backlog is a lifelong investment. You will forever add more things to the backlog, forever making it longer and longer, until it’s too hard to manage.

Except, maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Maybe, you can prioritize certain things and give yourself the leeway to consume what you want when you want to, and balance it so you can check off a reasonable amount of media. Maybe, you can finish the priorities without it feeling like a heavy burden.

Crafting A New Backlog

Let’s start with the main list itself. My backlogs usually list out the title of the medium, any important information about it, and whether or not I own it. This last step is crucial if you don’t already have it on there, as having access to consuming the media at hand might be what separates the “compleatable” games/books from the “uncompleteable.” If you literally can’t get your hands on the game/book at hand, then why bother pressuring yourself to worry about finishing it?

From there, I detail information about how the game/book was finished. This should be added to your backlog if it isn’t, as it gives incentive to finish something without the pressure of a schedule.

Depending on the medium your working with, you’ll end up listing different things. For example, my video game backlog lists how I completed the game (completion status), how long it took for me to beat the game (sometimes an estimate), where I played the game, and what I would rate it on my scale (1-10 half-star system). On the other hand, my book backlog only lists how I read the book (eBook/Physical) and the rating.

Another thing you should consider adding to your main backlog list is a “notes” or “how’d it go?” section. Some kind of section where you can quickly rant about what you liked and disliked about the game/book. Honestly, this is my favorite part about finishing something on my backlog, mostly because some books/games have that one thing in it that absolutely irked me, and because I like to keep my social media spoiler-free, I can be as savage about the book/game as I want. I also think it’s good for memory’s sake, so you’re not just completing something and forgetting it immediately after. And, like, it’s probably good for your mental health to have a space to rant about something without having the eyes of hundreds—if not thousands—on it, ready to jump you for your opinions (which you’re allowed to have, by the way).

I also like to color code items on my lists, though too much color coding might get annoying. Generally, I’ll highlight a list item green when I finish it, blue if it’s on my to-read/to-play list, gold if I’m currently playing/reading it, and red/teal if I’ve put the item on pause for whatever reason.

Speaking of to-read lists, let’s move on to that next. However you name it, I would recommend making a separate list of the books/games that you want to read/play next. Lay it all out, and don’t be afraid to put re-read or re-plays on it as well. I’ve found that listing out every single game I want to play in an order can be stressful because a lot of the time, what I’ve listed out might not be what I want to play and it doesn’t leave room for new additions to the list.

What worked the best for me was to make an external list of every single game I have access to and want to play, highlighting all of them on the backlog (i.e. my blue color code), then creating a small list of up-next games on a different tab. I prioritized five or so games I’m currently in the middle of at the top, how far I am in the game (a vague approximation that doesn’t have to be time spent), and also listed out how excited I am to play the game (i.e. high, medium, low). If something hits low interest, and I’m not seeking it out when I want to play something, then I’ll take it off the docket and move on to something else.

With books, it’s a bit different, especially if you’re working with library loans. I personally list out the books I want to read next, upwards of 20 at a time, just so I can see what loans are coming up and when things will be due. I don’t think it hurts as much to number the TBR, but also be aware that the order might not work line by line depending on when your loans come in and the like.

Finally, one other thing that I find helpful to keep backlog stress at bay is a list of completed books/games, structured in a yearly basis. You could do this in an app like Storygraph or GoodReads and let the app tell you how much you read, but the physicality of putting the entry down, writing out how long it is and the exact date you finished the media, can help tremendously with memory. It’s also kind of nice to see how long it took you to read a book or play a game, especially if you have a lot of entries, and which months are the most productive hobby-wise compared to others (e.g. for me, the fall months are miserable media-consumption times).

Demoing the Backlog

One thing that’s helped me with my backlog is demoing a game/book/show that’s coming up next before you get to play/watch/read it. This, of course, depends on the media, as I’m fairly certain there isn’t an easy way to demo a show before watching it properly, other than just watching the first episode. Or, like, watching the trailer, I guess.

Giving it a test run might help decide whether or not the media you’ve put on your list is worth your time, and thus energy. Play an hour of it, read three chapters of it, and see if it’s even something you’d enjoy, because if it’s not, it’s easy to take something off the list and wash your hands of it.

Game Demos

There’s a couple of options for demoing games. First, and the most obvious, is downloading the game’s actual demo. These demos are free, and usually give you a good couple hours of experience with the game to know whether or not you’ll like it. Unfortunately, we also live in an era where game demos aren’t as appreciated, so there aren’t going to be demos for every game.

That’s where borrowing comes in. Of course, there’s Game Pass which is just borrowing with a few extra steps (and a hell of a lot of money), but I’m talking going to your local library and seeing what they have. A lot of the time, you’ll find that your library has a lot of the most recent releases and the most popular games. If not, ask to see if your library is a part of a library system, where you can get inter-library loans from other libraries in your area. Other libraries might have bigger selections, which gives you a higher chance of checking a newer game out.

But, what if the game you wanna play is 15+ years old? This is where things get a little sketchy.

Well, there’s always Nintendo Switch Online (NSO). A regular NSO subscription’s still a decent price, and you get access to a couple of NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color games. But, that’s all you get access to, and Pokemon is not on that list as of writing this post. You could subscribe to the higher tier, which is $50 a year and gives you access to N64, GameCube (only if you have a Switch 2), Genesis, and Gameboy Advance games, but again, it’s not a very substantial catalog. If you’re game is there, and you’re willing to spend that hellish price point, then by all means.

There’s also Playstation Plus, but let’s be so real: Nobody has a Playstation Plus subscription. You can see if it’s worth your time and/or money, but it likely won’t be. And that’s the problem with these subscription services: They cost a hell of a lot of money and don’t give you a lot of options to work with.

That’s where emulation comes it. There are very dedicated communities of people on GitHub and Reddit sharing everything they know about emulating and downloading roms, and the backlog of games available on there will shock you. It would be more shocking if you can’t find the game you’re looking for. Of course, I can’t fully condone emulating in a blog post for legal reasons (wink), but you would be surprised what modern phones and laptops can handle in the emulating field of things. If you have an iPhone, Delta Emulator is gonna be your best friend, and if not, RetroArch is a close second (though has a much higher learning curve, so Reddit may be a closer friend to you).

If playing on official hardware is what’s hanging you up on emulating, then there’s plenty of options for that as well. It’s like the joke from a couple of years back, there is nothing easier than modding a 3DS. Plus, 3DS’s can handle 3DS games the best because you’re using the official hardware. PS2 emulation using official PS2’s have also been a highly popular mod, along with modding the PSP or PS Vita to run games on those console, along with PS1 emulation since both consoles sell PS1 games on their storefronts.

And again, you’re just testing to see if you like the game to know whether or not to keep it on your backlog, so you don’t have to play the entire thing emulated, if that’s your concern.

Not that I’m recommending you do this, of course, haha haha….unless.

Book Demos

On the other hand, demoing a book is much harder. I’m not as in the know when it comes to “emulating” books, but I do know that Libby is free with your library card, and you can demo a lot of books on there free of charge.

Also, again, you’re library has a lot of books and often has a limit of like a hundred books checked out, so you can go there, pick up a lot of the books on your TBR, and read a couple of pages to see if you’ll like it. Or, if you don’t have access to a library, you can stop by any book store and read the first few pages of a book on your TBR to know if you’ll like it before purchasing. See for yourself if you’ll actually like the novel, and don’t just assume based on what you hear from BookTok and BookTube.

Outside of that, I do know that Google and Amazon often have sneak peaks of books when you search it by name, so see if that’s a feasible thing. There’s also Kindle Unlimited, which I don’t think you need a Kindle to use as long as you have the app, if you want to test a couple of books, but again, it’s Amazon and a subscription service, so likely not the best choice.

Coming to Terms With Reality

Something you might realize in demoing your backlog is that you don’t actually want to read/watch/play everything on your backlog. You might realize that a game that’s been on there for years isn’t actually as fun as you’d hoped, or a book isn’t enjoyable to read.

In that case, why force yourself to consume something if you don’t like it?

There’s no race to read the most books, play the most games, watch the most shows. Sure, it’s fun to track what you’ve read/watched/played in a year, but that’s all it is. Just a tracker. It’s not meant to force you to read more books this year than last; we don’t have to turn our book trackers into a capitalistic regime where you need to make profits than last quarter. It’s just a fun hobby, and that’s what’s important to remember.

There are a lot of people on YouTube, TikTok, any form of social media that will boast about reading a god-awful book in it’s entirety, or watched a shitty show, or played a horrendously developed game. But you gotta remember that these people do this because 1) it makes them a profit a lot of the time, and 2) they find their own enjoyment out of consuming bad media. You shouldn’t force yourself to consume anything you don’t want to consume for the rating.

You can just give up. It’s alright. I don’t even know if you can consider it “giving up” when you’re consuming media for fun to begin with. You’re just passing on it for now. Maybe in 10-30 years, you’ll come back to it and enjoy it. That only means that it wasn’t made for you as you are in this current moment, and that’s alright.

The Backlog Mantra

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that there is no due date for your backlog. We list out the games we need to play and the books we need to read not because we want a constant reminder of what we haven’t finished, but for the potential of what will be finished.

Games are meant to be fun. Books are meant to be enjoyable. There’s no need to freak out about being unable to finish it, or spending so much time thinking about it that reading books and playing games no longer is exciting. It’s all superficial! The list is fake! You don’t have to actually do anything but what you want to do!

Play what you want to play, not because you were told to play it. Read what you want to read, regardless of what people say is good/bad about it. Do it because you want to, not because you have to. Take as long as you need, because it doesn’t matter how long it takes. It’s all entertainment at the end of the day.

Of course, a lot of this is dependent on whether or not you’re a perfectionist like myself. You might have a non-self-defeating brain and be able to understand that games are meant to be fun and it’s all just a hobby anyway (which, holy shit, what’s that like??). Regardless, it’s a good thing to keep in mind, especially when you lose sight of the purpose of a backlog.

And that’s about it! Starting the new year strong, getting backlog habits out of the way as soon as possible. These are all suggestions, but important things to consider if you’re also feeling overwhelmed by choice.

How have you tackled your backlog? Have any other tips and tricks? What works and what doesn’t? Lemme know in the comments below!

If you wanna read more about my backlogs and how they’re structured, check out my previous blog post: Let Me Rant About My Google Sheets For A Moment.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I’m starting a new series this year! Aptly named “Monthly Backlog Stackin’,” I will be posting mini-updates every month about my backlog progress so you can see what I’ve been playing, reading, and collecting over the month, as well as my goals moving forward. These posts will go live on the very last day of every month, at noon EST, so stay tuned for that!

And as always, see you next week!

January 11, 2026

SMS: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Perhaps the best Ace Attorney game I've ever played, which I don't know what that says about the Ace Attorney series...

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (PLVPWAA) was the last Ace Attorney game I had to play in order to claim that I’ve completed all of the Ace Attorney games. But, it’s also a game that took me years to complete because of how burnt out of Ace Attorney I got after 2022 (fun fact: don’t play all eleven Ace Attorney games in one sitting, it will kill you). Despite this, PLVPWAA is truly one of the best Ace Attorney games I’ve ever played, and I think that statement is really funny.

Now, I’ve never played a Professor Layton game. I still haven’t as of writing this, despite owning Professor Layton and the Curious Village. So, I can’t say on the Professor Layton side of things if it’s a good game in that series. But, for Ace Attorney, the quality of life features implemented into this game changes the entire scope of the series. Hell, without PLVPWAA, we wouldn’t have the multiple witnesses that The Great Ace Attorney series is so well-beloved for.

PLVPWAA is a crossover game between the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton game series (could you possibly have guessed?). Both of which are point-and-click adventures and often involve a mystery, though outside of that, there aren’t a lot of similarities (from what I can tell). It released in 2012 for the 3DS, and continues to be one of the more expensive Complete-In-Box games for the system. And, rightfully so, as it’s the only Ace Attorney game that hasn’t made the jump to modern hardware. Being the object of Shu Takumi’s attention, the long creation period of PLVPWAA would spawn the Ace Attorney Investigations duology and shift writers for Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies in the meantime. And while it isn’t considered canon for the Ace Attorney side of things, it is still a beloved crossover game for the fandom to this day.

Amazon.com: Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney : Nintendo of America: Video Games

For me, one of the things that I love in PLVPWAA is that there is so much more to investigation sequences in this game than any other Ace Attorney game. You get to talk to a lot more people and see what they think of the scene at hand, and properly travel between the areas involved. You can also find hint coins to help with puzzles later on, and there are mini puzzles to solve in between actual investigating, which sometimes can help progress the story.

Now, I don’t think Ace Attorney needs puzzles in their investigation sequences; I think that’d make the series too similar to Professor Layton, and each deserve to have their own quirk that makes them stand out from other point-and-click visual novels. But, it would be really nice if, during investigations, I could do literally anything else to help progress the story in some capacity other than look at item and talk to one dedicated individual in a particular area.

The story is also quite unique for an Ace Attorney game, if not only because the town is vaguely medieval, but also because the town’s leader writes out prophecies for how the day will go for his citizens, to which they believe in wholeheartedly (even if it doesn’t make sense). It’s got enough goofy writing in it for the silliness of an Ace Attorney and Professor Layton crossover, but it’s also genuinely takes the plot seriously, especially as this town’s secret begins to unravel.

Labyrinthia | Ace Attorney Wiki | Fandom

And not only that, but you get to see the quirks of Phoenix and Maya investigating the town together, and also get to see how they fair when investigating alone with Layton or Luke, and the intermingling of their different personalities as they unravel the truth. It’s super unique, and the separation of the defense attorney and their assistant is something that rarely happens in the Ace Attorney series that it’s a breath of fresh air. You really get to see what makes each of these characters unique as individuals, rather than a package deal all of the time, which is great not only for Ace Attorney, but from what I’ve read, great for Professor Layton as well.

One Year Later: Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Feature - Nintendo World Report

Not only that, but the stakes are genuinely high for Phoenix, as not being able to acquit his client could mean certain death for them (i.e. burning to death witch-trials-style). It doesn’t seem as artificially implemented as it is in Ace Attorney 6 (AA6 bastardizes the “we will kill you if you can’t defend your client” plotline in such an egregious way, I can’t believe that game exists); you can truly feel the tension in Phoenix’s facial expressions, the music, and the writing.

The Fire Witch | Ace Attorney Wiki | Fandom

I don’t want to spoil PLVPWAA because it is such a phenomenal game with quite a shocking plot twist at the very end. But, I truly wish more people got a chance to play this game. There’s very limited means to be able to emulate 3DS games right now, and with the eShop permanently closed, there are very few means to pick up a copy and play. Which, unfortunately, makes it hard to recommend. If you ever get the chance to play PLVPWAA, take it, because I cannot recommend it enough (we can only hope it gets ported to Switch).

And that’s about it! God, PLVPWAA, how you’ve permanently altered the future of the Ace Attorney series so effortlessly. Despite finishing this game like…seven months ago at this point, I still remember being absolutely gobsmacked at the ending. Sure, is it a little silly? Yes, but it’s the spirit of things that matters. Plus, we get Espella and Darklaw toxic yuri out of it, so I can’t complain.

What’s your opinion of PLVPWAA? How do you shorten the crossover’s long ass title? Did it affect the Professor Layton side of things as much as it did to Ace Attorney? Leave a comment below!

Next SMS post will be live 1/25, where I talk about my experiences with Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, the first Castlevania game I’ve ever played, so stay tuned for that! Also, if you’ve got a backlog that’s causing you immense torture to think about, consider checking out my main series Substack post for this week where we will discuss how to fix your backlog and make it less stressful! It goes live 1/7 at 3:00 PM EST, so stay tuned for that!

And as always, see you next week!